Functional Interval Training for People with Spinal Cord Injury and Their Care Partners (SCI-FIT) aims to address barriers to physical activity for people with spinal cord injury and their care partners. This research study provides free, twice weekly group-based, adaptable exercise classes for people with spinal cord injury and their care partners.
Regular physical activity, and more specifically exercise, is beneficial for people with and without spinal cord injury (SCI). Unfortunately, people with spinal cord injury (pSCI) are less physically active than adults without SCI and are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Care partners, or those who provide frequent assistance to those living with SCI, also achieve low physical activity levels and share similar health risks as a result. Often there are limited opportunities for pSCI to engage in regular exercise. In addition, pSCI and their care partners often face significant barriers to exercise including 1) lack of exercise participation opportunities; 2) cost of quality exercise instruction; 3) inaccessible exercise equipment or environments; 4) lack of social support from family and peers. This study, Functional Interval Training for People with Spinal Cord Injury and Their Care Partners (SCI-FIT) will explicitly address the barriers to exercise pSCI and their care partners often face with the primary goals of improving the health, physical activity levels, and quality of life of pSCI and their care partners. In order to address these goals, SCI-FIT will provide no-cost, twice weekly, group-based, adaptable exercise programming for pSCI and their care partners. All participants will be required to have physician or advanced practice provider clearance to exercise and will be evaluated by a physical therapist at no-cost prior to beginning the intervention to assess eligibility for the study. All eligible participants will complete a demographics questionnaire and will undergo a battery of baseline outcome assessments prior to undergoing the exercise intervention. Participants will complete 6-months of twice weekly group exercise classes aimed and hypothesized to increase physical activity levels, muscular strength, social support for exercise, functional mobility, peak power output, aerobic capacity, and quality of life for people with spinal cord injury and their care partners. Participants will repeat baseline outcome assessments at study midpoint (3-months) and study completion (6-months).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
23
Participants will participate in a maximum of twice weekly exercise classes (90 minutes each class) for a total of 6 months. While participants will be encouraged to attend as many classes as able, there is no minimum requirement for class attendance. During the exercise classes, participants will participate in a 10-minute warm up, followed by 30-60 minutes of aerobic, resistance and/or balance training up to a maximum intensity of 8/10 on the rating of perceived exertion scale. Participants will finish each class with a 10-minute cool-down consisting of lower intensity exercise.
Arkansas Colleges of Health Education
Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States
Participant Attendance
The percentage of interventions sessions attended by participants.
Time frame: 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in 6-Minute Arm Test (6-MAT) at 6 Months
Assessment of aerobic capacity in individuals with spinal cord injury
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Five Times Sit to Stand Test at 6 Months
Participants who are able to stand will complete this assessment of lower extremity strength over three trials.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Upper Extremity Muscular Strength at 6 months
Muscular strength of the upper extremities will be assessed via 3-trials of hand-held dynamometry of the shoulder flexor, shoulder extensor, elbow flexor and elbow extensor muscle groups as well as grip strength via a dynamometer.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in The Spinal cord Injury Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale at 6 months
Measures perceived self-efficacy for various types of physical activities for people with spinal cord injury. The scale has a minimum score of 10 and a maximum score of 40. Higher scores indicate greater confidence in planning and carrying out physical activities and/or exercise based on their own volition.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Self Efficacy for Exercise Scale at 6 months
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Self report measure for exercise self efficacy completed by care partner participants. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 90. A higher score indicates higher self-efficacy for exercise.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Social Support and Exercise Survey at 6 months
Self report measure for social support for exercise from family and friends. The scale has a minimum score of 46 and maximum score of 230. Higher scores indicate greater social support of friends and family for physical activity and exercise behaviors.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Gait Speed at 6 months
Measure of walking speed at both self-selected and fast walking speed for ambulatory participants.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Rand 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 at 6 months
Self-reported measure of health related quality of life for participants who are care partners. The measure assesses eight health concepts through eight subscales (physical functioning, bodily pain, role limitations due to physical health problems, role limitations due to personal or emotional problems, emotional well-being, social functioning, energy/fatigue, and general health perceptions). Scores in each category are averaged and range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health-related quality of life.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Quality of Life for People with Spinal Cord Injury as assessed by the Spinal Cord Injury - Quality of Life Measure [Emotional Health and Social Participation] at 6 months
Self report measure of quality of life related to Emotional Health (positive affect and well-being, resilience, self-esteem, and stigma) and Social Participation (independence) for people with spinal cord injury.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Spinal Cord Injury - Functional Index at 6 months
Self report measure of perceived functional abilities of people with spinal cord injury including self-care, basic mobility, ambulation, manual wheelchair, power wheelchair, and ambulation.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in One Minute Peak Power Test at 6 months
Measure of peak power assessed via a 1-minute skiergometer tests
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity Levels at 6 Months
Physical activity levels will be measured via wrist worn Actigraph GT9X Link. The Actigraph is able to detect acceleration in multiple planes of motion. Through collecting acceleration data, different intensities of physical activity will be inferred (i.e light, moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity), with moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity being used as the primary outcome measure. At the four time points, participants will wear the Actigraph for 7 consecutive days. The Actigraph will not need to be removed for activities such as bathing and showering, however the device will be removed for activities such as swimming.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Participant Retention
The number and percentage of participants who remain in the study through the final measurement point at 6 months.
Time frame: After 6 months of exercise intervention
Change in lower extremity functional strength at 6 months
Lower extremity strength will be measured via functional test (Five Times Sit to Stand). This test records the amount of time taken to rise and sit to and from a chair five consecutive times. Faster times indicate greater lower extremity strength.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in 6 Minute Walk Test at 6 months
The 6 Minute Walk Test measures a participants ability to cover as much distance (measured in meters) as possible while walking for 6 minutes. Participants will walk along a pre-defined pathway for 6 minutes, resting as needed. The test is a measure of walking endurance with further distances indicating greater endurance.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Change in Global Rating of Change at 6 Months
Participants will rate their perceived level of change on a 15-point Likert Scale ranging from -7 (a very great deal less/worse to +7 (a very great deal more/better) with 0 representing no change. They will use this scale to answer 4 separate questions: 1) amount of physical activity performed in an average week, 2) ability to walk or push leisurely, 3) ability to walk or push fast, 4) ability to walk or push for a long period of time.
Time frame: After 6 months of exercise intervention
Change in Self-Reported Physical Activity Level at 6 Months
Participants report their perceived physical activity levels compared to people their own age using a 5-point Likert Scale ranging from "much more active" to "much less active".
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months (intervention midpoint), 6 months (immediately post intervention completion)
Participant Recruitment Rate
The number of participants recruited will be reported as a percentage of total participants contacted for study participation.
Time frame: Throughout the 6-month study period